A city girl's explorations into sustainable living

Recently I found myself unemployed, pondering what I should do with my life next. All the career books say, do what you love. Find your passion. Follow your bliss. As if there is an answer -- a solution that will allow you to make money doing what you were meant to do. Help the world, help yourself, and make money!

For me, it's not so easy. I'm interested in a lot of things, but nothing that I am willing to invest in enough to turn it into a career.

I'm what Barbara Sher calls a "scanner," or what Margaret Lobenstine calls "the Renaissance Soul." At least that's what these self-help books for the career-stunted tell me.

What I tell myself is that I'm a learner. And what I want to learn about right now is sustainable living. I have a feeling it's what I'm supposed to be doing -- even if it doesn't pay. Even if it COSTS money to do.

I am meant to be a student right now, exploring peak oil, the economic crisis, climate change, sustainable agriculture, community building, permaculture, natural capitalism, Transition Towns, rural sociology, and my own spiritual growth. I honestly don't know where it will lead, or what it will amount to, but I invite you to share my journey.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Paper vs. Pixels

In the book "Packaging Sustainability: Tools, Systems and Strategies for Innovative Package Design," there is a section called "Paper vs. Plastic -- Neither!" It compares the eco-impact of paper to plastic. It got me to thinking: how does the eco-impact of paper compare to the eco-impact of pixels (or, what's the relative eco-impact of reading things in print to reading things online)?

With new gadgets like the kindle and nook, I find myself wondering if this is really an improvement to old-fashioned paper books. Especially after learning about systems thinking in my MCAD class, I am concerned about all the mined, dwindling resources and potentially toxic substances that go into making kindles and nooks. Also, I wonder about all the electricity needed to have books available for download and store them in memory on a server somewhere.

I also have been thinking about online classes. Is it better to read pdfs online, or to print them out and read them with the computer off?

Is this switch to digital, electronic, paper-less information sharing really less harmful than the old-fashioned, printed hard-copy medium?
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